'About Hitler I can't think of anything to say,' thus Karl Kraus in a famous aside in 1935. But a great deal has been said about him ever since and no one has been better at saying it than Alan Bullock. His Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, published in 1952, is still the best biography, and one of the best books on the Nazi phenomenon in general. Only a very few other works come to mind which are in the same league: Konrad Heiden's history of the Nazi Party and his Hitler biography - but they appeared in 1932 and 1936 respectively - and Joachim Fest's fine work of 1972.

LRB 26 September 1991 | PDF Download